Spread (2009)

Director:

David Mackenzie

Writers (WGA):

Jason Dean Hall (screenplay)
Jason Dean Hall (story) ...

Release Date:

8 July 2009 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

It's a business doing pleasure.

Plot:

A sex comedy centered on a serial womanizer and his jilted lover.

Plot Keywords:

Womanizer | Waitress | Sex Comedy | Jilted | Player

Cast

Ashton Kutcher	...	Nikki
Anne Heche	...	Samantha
Margarita Levieva	...	Heather
Sebastian Stan	...	Harry
Ashley Johnson	...	Eva
Sonia Rockwell	...	Christina
Rachel Blanchard	...	Emily
Shane Brolly	...	Prince Stelio
Eric Balfour	...	Sean
Maria Conchita Alonso	...	Ingrid
Thomas Kijas	...	Jason - 'Head Waiter'
Derek Carter	...	Delivery Guy
Dani Levine	...	Nadia
Peter Marc Jacobson	...	Plastic Surgeon
Hart Bochner	...	Will

MPAA:

Rated R for strong sexual content, nudity and language.

Runtime:

97 min | USA:97 min (Sundance Film Festival)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #45330) | UK:18 | Australia:R (2009) | Canada:18A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) | France:U (with warning) | Norway:15 | Ireland:18 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Taiwan:R-18 | South Korea:18 | Singapore:R21 | Portugal:M/16 | Mexico:B15 | New Zealand:R18

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Barbarian Films

Trivia:

Jennifer Jason Leigh was originally cast as Samantha.

Soundtrack:

Mainstay Unsettled Mix

Sexy, subversive and very surprising...

Spread is an unusual little film. I say 'little', as it's essentially a low budget character-driven drama that is some how being commercially packaged as a rom-com. A quick glance at the credits reveals that this isn't your average Kutcher vehicle: it's directed by Scotland's David Mackenzie of "Young Adam" and "Hallam Foe" fame.

Make no mistake, the Kutcher we see at the start of the film is very familiar: arrogant, uptight and utterly beautiful. But as the run-time flies past, we somehow warm to his character even though he's getting more sex than most of us will get in a lifetime. And here's the good news: Kutcher's performance is fairly astounding. He manages to reveal the humanity in his deeply flawed character with notable subtlety and a distinct lack of cliché. Kutcher's (many) sexual relationships portrayed in the film are brutally realistic: the modern and perhaps unromantic realities of casual sex are not dressed-up in any cheap Hollywood moralising. This is also evident in the overall tone of the film: there are many moments that could have descended into schmaltz, but a sharp edge it maintained on just about every line of dialogue.

Kutcher fans: beware. This is a real departure for the actor, but thank goodness: it's a movie with all the superficial gloss of Hollywood and all the invention of an indie flick.